Police dispatchers may face loss of jobs

Police dispatchers
may face loss of jobs

By Clare Marie Celano

FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP — Joel Halpern has been working as a dispatcher for the Freehold Township Police Department since 1977. Now he fears that he and his coworkers may lose their jobs.

Halpern came to the Township Committee meeting on May 26 in the hope of finding the answer he wanted to hear and hoping that what he heard was just a rumor.

“I want to know if there is a movement to lay off the police dispatchers, all 10 of us,” he asked the members of the governing body.

Referring to himself as an “old soldier,” Halpern said he and his co-workers function as a support staff for the police department.

“We know where they are and where the police need to go. We know the town. The public comes first,” Halpern said. “And what will be the cost to the public if you replace us with workers from the county who don’t know the town like we do?”

Halpern said a decision to lay off the police dispatchers would “upset 10 people’s lives along with their families.”

“Some of us are only one year away from retirement,” he said.

He added the newest member of the police dispatchers crew has been on the job for 10 years.

“Is this in motion?” he asked the committee.

Mayor Raymond Kershaw responded by saying these are “hard times.” He said the committee members are continuing to look for ways to cut costs and save money for residents.

“We are still looking for cost-effective ways to render the same level of service,” Kershaw said.

Township Administrator Thomas Antus said discussions have been under way for several months to explore the possibility of assigning Freehold Township police dispatch responsibilities to the Monmouth County dispatch office.

“Nothing is official,” Antus said.

Committeeman David Salkin said the Freehold Township police dispatchers are all “fantastic employees.”

“There is nothing official to report until all the details are in,” Salkin said. “We need assurance that the level of service (from the county) will be the same. One way to save the cops (who are planned for layoffs) may be to do away with the dispatchers. Would we rather have you remain here? Yes, but we are being forced to do things we don’t want to do. Are we looking at this, studying this? Yes.”

In a subsequent conversation, Antus said Freehold Township officials are in discussions with county officials about the possibility of the county dispatch center taking over the dispatching services for the police department, the first aid squad and local firefighters.

“Until the negotiations are completed, I really cannot comment,” Antus said.

He said he is optimistic that switching to the county dispatching system will provide a significant savings to the municipality.